Ventilatory efficiency in long-term dyspnoeic patients following COVID-19 pneumonia.

Background: Long COVID is defined as persistency of symptoms, such as exertional dyspnea, twelve weeks after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Objectives: To investigate ventilatory efficiency by the use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in patients with exertional dyspnea despite normal basal spirometry after 18 (T) and 36 months (T) from COVID-19 pneumonia.

Methods: One hundred patients with moderate-critical COVID-19 were prospectively enrolled in our Long COVID program.

Parietal resting-state EEG alpha source connectivity is associated with subcortical white matter lesions in HIV-positive people.

Objective: Parietal resting-state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) alpha (8-10 Hz) source connectivity is abnormal in HIV-positive persons. Here we tested whether this abnormality may be associated with subcortical white matter vascular lesions in the cerebral hemispheres.

Methods: Clinical, rsEEG, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets in 38 HIV-positive persons and clinical and rsEEG datasets in 13 healthy controls were analyzed.

Parietal intrahemispheric source connectivity of resting-state electroencephalographic alpha rhythms is abnormal in Naïve HIV patients.

Previous evidence showed abnormal parietal sources of resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) delta (< 4 Hz) and alpha (8-12 Hz) rhythms in treatment-Naïve HIV (Naïve HIV) subjects, as cortical neural synchronization markers in quiet wakefulness. Here, we tested the hypothesis that these local abnormalities may be related to functional cortical dysconnectivity as an oscillatory brain network disorder. The present EEG database regarded 128 Naïve HIV and 60 Healthy subjects.

Resting State Alpha Electroencephalographic Rhythms Are Affected by Sex in Cognitively Unimpaired Seniors and Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Retrospective and Exploratory Study.

In the present retrospective and exploratory study, we tested the hypothesis that sex may affect cortical sources of resting state eyes-closed electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms recorded in normal elderly (Nold) seniors and patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment (ADMCI). Datasets in 69 ADMCI and 57 Nold individuals were taken from an international archive. The rsEEG rhythms were investigated at individual delta, theta, and alpha frequency bands and fixed beta (14-30 Hz) and gamma (30-40 Hz) bands.

Cortical sources of resting state electroencephalographic rhythms probe brain function in naïve HIV individuals.

Objective: Here we evaluated the hypothesis that resting state electroencephalographic (EEG) cortical sources correlated with cognitive functions and discriminated asymptomatic treatment-naïve HIV subjects (no AIDS).

Methods: EEG, clinical, and neuropsychological data were collected in 103 treatment-naïve HIV subjects (88 males; mean age 39.8 years ± 1.

Brain and cognitive functions in two groups of naïve HIV patients selected for a different plan of antiretroviral therapy: A qEEG study.

Objective: Cortical sources of electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms were investigated in two sub-populations of naïve HIV subjects, grouped based on clinical criteria to receive different combination anti-retroviral therapies (cARTs). These EEG sources were hypothesized to reflect beneficial effects of both regimes.

Methods: Eyes-closed resting state EEG data were collected in 19 (Group A) and 39 (Group B) naïve HIV subjects at baseline (i.

Antiretroviral therapy affects the z-score index of deviant cortical EEG rhythms in naïve HIV individuals.

Objective: Here we tested the effect of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) on deviant electroencephalographic (EEG) source activity in treatment-naïve HIV individuals.

Methods: Resting state eyes-closed EEG data were recorded before and after 5 months of cART in 48 male HIV subjects, who were naïve at the study start. The EEG data were also recorded in 59 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects as a control group.

Use of exercise testing in the evaluation of interventional efficacy: an official ERS statement.

This document reviews 1) the measurement properties of commonly used exercise tests in patients with chronic respiratory diseases and 2) published studies on their utilty and/or evaluation obtained from MEDLINE and Cochrane Library searches between 1990 and March 2015.Exercise tests are reliable and consistently responsive to rehabilitative and pharmacological interventions. Thresholds for clinically important changes in performance are available for several tests.

Abnormal cortical sources of resting state electroencephalographic rhythms in single treatment-naïve HIV individuals: A statistical z-score index.

Objective: This study tested a simple statistical procedure to recognize single treatment-naïve HIV individuals having abnormal cortical sources of resting state delta (<4 Hz) and alpha (8-13 Hz) electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms with reference to a control group of sex-, age-, and education-matched healthy individuals. Compared to the HIV individuals with a statistically normal EEG marker, those with abnormal values were expected to show worse cognitive status.

Methods: Resting state eyes-closed EEG data were recorded in 82 treatment-naïve HIV (39.

Cortical sources of resting state electroencephalographic rhythms differ in relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Objective: Resting state electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms are abnormal in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, but it is unclear if they can reflect different neurophysiologic abnormalities in MS sub-types (phenotypes) such as relapsing-remitting (RR) and secondary progressive (SP).

Methods: We tested whether cortical sources of resting state EEG rhythms are abnormal in MS patients and differ between MS phenotypes. Resting state eyes-closed EEG activity was recorded in 36 RR, 23 SP, and 41 matched healthy subjects.

Relationship between daily physical activity and aerobic fitness in adults with cystic fibrosis.

Background: The best clinical practice to investigate aerobic fitness includes measurements obtained during cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), however it remains an underutilised clinical measure in cystic fibrosis (CF). To investigate this further, different methods of quantifying exercise capacity in CF are required. The possibility that measuring physical activity (PA) by a portable accelerometer could be used to assess the CF aerobic state and could be added among the CPET surrogates has not been investigated.

Antiretroviral therapy effects on sources of cortical rhythms in HIV subjects: responders vs. mild responders.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that 5months of combined anti-retroviral therapy (cART) affect cortical sources of resting state cortical electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms in naïve HIV subjects.

Methods: Eyes-closed resting state EEG data were recorded at baseline (i.e.

Cortical sources of resting-state EEG rhythms in "experienced" HIV subjects under antiretroviral therapy.

Objective: Treatment-naïve patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are characterized by diffuse abnormalities of resting-state cortical electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms (Babiloni et al., 2012a). Here, we tested the hypothesis that these EEG rhythms vary as a function of the systemic immune activity and antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV patients.

Feasibility and safety of endovascular treatment for chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Objective: Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is a recently discovered syndrome mainly due to stenoses of internal jugular (IJV) and/or azygos (AZ) veins. The present study retrospectively evaluates the feasibility and safety of endovascular treatment for CCSVI in a cohort of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: From September 2010 to October 2012, 1202 consecutive patients were admitted to undergo phlebograpy ± endovascular treatment for CCSVI.

Minute ventilation and heart rate relationship for estimation of the ventilatory compensation point at high altitude: a pilot study.

Background: The ventilatory compensation point (VCP) is an exercise threshold which has been used in the design of training programs in sports medicine and rehabilitation. We recently demonstrated that changes in the slope of the minute ventilation to heart rate relationship (ΔV˙E/ΔHR) can be utilized for estimation of the VCP during incremental exercise at sea level (SL). We hypothesized that in hypoxic conditions, such as high altitude (HA), VCP can be also reliably estimated by ΔV˙E/ΔHR.

Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry study of children and adolescents with Down syndrome.

In order to investigate alterations in brain morphology and a possible temporal pattern of neuroanatomical abnormalities in the gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of young patients with Down syndrome (DS), high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was performed on 21 children and adolescents with this chromosomal aberration and 27 age-matched participants as controls. In comparison with control subjects, children and adolescents with DS showed not only an overall smaller whole-brain volume, but also volume reductions of the GM in the cerebellum, frontal lobes, frontal region of the limbic lobe, parahippocampal gyri and hippocampi and of the WM in the cerebellum, frontal and parietal lobes, sub-lobar regions and brainstem. By contrast, volume preservation was observed in the GM of the parietal lobes, temporal lobe and sub-lobar regions and in the WM of the temporal lobe and temporal regions of the limbic lobe.

Cortical sources of resting-state EEG rhythms are abnormal in naïve HIV subjects.

Objective: The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that cortical sources of resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms show peculiar frequency/spatial features in naïve human subjects with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) compared to healthy control subjects.

Methods: Resting-state eyes-closed EEG data were recorded in 18 naïve HIV subjects (15 males; mean age 39 years±2.0 standard error of mean, SEM) and in 18 age-matched cognitively normal subjects (15 males; 38.

Cortical sources of resting state EEG rhythms are abnormal in dyslexic children.

Objective: Previous studies have been inconclusive whether dominant resting state alpha rhythms differ in amplitude in dyslexic subjects when compared to control subjects, being these rhythms considered as a reflection of effective cortical neural synchronization and cognition. Here we used a validated EEG source estimation to test the hypothesis that resting state alpha rhythms are abnormal in dyslexic subjects and are related to reading deficits.

Methods: Eyes-closed resting state electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded in 26 dyslexics (12 males, mean age of 11 years ± 0.

A simplified approach for the estimation of the ventilatory compensation point.

Unlabelled: Incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test with gas exchange measurement is the gold standard for the identification of the ventilatory compensation point (VCP). It has previously been demonstrated that the change in the slope of increment of minute ventilation over HR (ΔV˙E/ΔHR) can be used alternatively to the ventilatory equivalent for CO₂ (V˙E/V˙CO₂) method for detection of VCP in healthy subjects undergoing cycle ergometer (C) incremental exercise. The same evaluation during treadmill (T) incremental exercise and comparison between C and T have not yet been performed.

Cognitive control of movement in Down syndrome.

Inhibition of inappropriate responses allows to shape the motor behavior accordingly to the context in which a subject acts and is an essential executive function. Inhibition has been poorly investigated in Down Syndrome (DS) patients. We tested, using a countermanding task, the inhibitory control in a group of DS patients and in a group of patients with developmental disorders of non-genetic etiology, matched for mental age.

Functional isolation within the cerebral cortex in the vegetative state: a nonlinear method to predict clinical outcomes.

Background: Establishing prognosis in patients in a persistent vegetative state (VS) is still challenging. Neural networks underlying consciousness may be regarded as complex systems whose outputs show a degree of unpredictability experimentally quantifiable by means of nonlinear parameters such as approximate entropy (ApEn).

Objective: The authors propose that the VS might be the result of derangement of the above neural networks, with an ensuing decrease in complexity and mutual interconnectivity: this might lead to a functional isolation within the cerebral cortex and to a reduction in the chaotic behavior of its outputs, with monotony taking the place of unpredictability.

Effect of heliox on heart rate kinetics and dynamic hyperinflation during high-intensity exercise in COPD.

Respiratory mechanical abnormalities in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may impair cardiodynamic responses and slow down heart rate (HR) kinetics compared with normal resulting in reduced convective oxygen delivery during exercise. We reasoned that heliox breathing (79% helium-21% oxygen) and the attendant reduction of operating lung volumes should accelerate HR kinetics in the transition from rest to high-intensity exercise. Eleven male ambulatory patients with clinically stable COPD undertook constant work-rate cycle testing at 80% of each individuals' maximum work capacity while breathing room air (RA) or heliox (HX), randomly.

Resting state eyes-closed cortical rhythms in patients with locked-in-syndrome: an EEG study.

Objective: Locked-in syndrome (LIS) is a state of complete paralysis, except for ocular movements, which results from ventral brainstem lesions. Patients typically are fully conscious. Here we tested the hypothesis that electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms are abnormal in LIS patients, possibly due to an impaired neural synchronization between brainstem and cerebral cortex.